Papua New Guinea’s former prime minister Sir Julius Chan says that if he had been allowed to continue with the infamous Sandline operation to put down the Bougainville civil war in 1997, he would have been able to bring the island under control.

On March 13 last year, the most powerful cyclone to ever hit the Pacific smashed into the islands of Vanuatu, leaving 75,000 people homeless. At least 15 people were killed in the storm. One year on, the nation still faces many challenges.

It is the final week of typically boisterous campaigning leading to Taiwan’s presidential and legislative elections on Saturday, where the embattled ruling Kuomintang is expected to be defeated in both, sparking its third democratic handover of power.

Vanuatu’s opposition leader has requested urgent clarification from the prime minister about why payments of 1 million vatu ($12,100) were distributed to the personal accounts of every opposition MP with the line item “TC Pam refund” this week.